iStat Pro is an Awesome Free System Monitoring Widget

Like any system monitor worth its salt, iStat pro displays vital information about your:

CPU

Memory

Hard disk(s)

Network

Temps

Fan speed

Battery (for laptops)

Uptime and System load

Running Processes

Unlike some other system monitoring tools for Mac OS X, iStat pro runs in the Dashboard instead of in the System Menu or the Dock. To me, this is preferable because I can quickly send it completely out of the way when I don’t need to check any system stats.

Okay, so it displays system stats. Is that all?

Nope. For starters, one cool aspect of iStat pro is that it displays your external IP address under the Network section. Pressing the i key (provided iStat is the active widget) will copy that external IP to your clipboard, which is handy for network admins.

You can also customize the stew of the widget. Want only certain elements (such as CPU, Temps, and Memory) to display? No problem, just turn off the others in the Preferences.

Want the stats widget to display vertically instead of horizontally? Yep, it can do that.

Want to rearrange the order of the elements? Just drag-and-drop.

Dislike the default color? Just pick from any of the nine included colors. There’s bound to be one you like.

If you’re totally hardcore about system monitoring, you can buy the iStat for iPhone app ($2) and check your Mac’s system stats remotely from your iPhone or iPod touch.

Hotkeys

For you hotkey aficionados, here’s a list of the available hotkeys for iStat pro, taken directly from the manual.

c – Show or hide the CPU sectionm – Show or hide the memory sectiond – Show or hide the disks sectionn – Show or hide the network sectionp – Show or hide the processes sectionu – Show or hide the uptime sectionb – Show or hide the battery sectionf – Show or hide the fans sectiont – Show or hide the temps sections – Swap between tall and wide skinsi – Copy external IP to the clipboardg – Update external IP1 – 8 – Change skin colour